Mining In Narheim

Mining is a vitally important, but highly dangerous,
industry.† A nation with a reliable
supply of raw materials has an advantage over one with poor resources.† But at what price does this security
come?† In modern day America, we pay the
price in risk to human life.† Mining is
the most dangerous industry in America, with more work related deaths than any
other business.† Great strides have been
made in regulating and protecting the miners, and entire industries have sprung
up to meet the demand for safety.†
Today, with an abundance of science to aid us, we rely on 20,000 workers
to provide all of our mined goods, from coal and iron to sand and
limestone.† But what would happen if
magic, rather than science, ruled our lives?†
The answers can be found on Gaea, in the land of Narheim.

Mining in Narheim is no less dangerous than mining in modern
day America, but the Narians have come to rely on magic to solve their
problems.† The human duchies that have
minable resources in their lands have all developed different methods of
extraction, ranging from highly sophisticated to medieval.

One of the most sophisticated operations is in the lands of Stepl, where iron and silver are mined.†
The humans have adopted many of the dwarvish mining practices, and as a
result, casualties are low.† The
thinking here is to design the mines in such a way that accidents are unlikely
to occur.† Magical tools are used to
augment human skill, but miners are still regarded as craftsmen.† They use shovels, picks, and blasting powder
like anyone else, but the tools are often coated in mythryle or endenimite (to
make them more efficient and last longer) and their blasts are based on
calculations (rather than experimentation).†
Likewise, structural integrity and ventilation are designed and planned
before the first shovel-ful is excavated, as opposed to the haphazard methods
used elsewhere (see Azure, below).† The
foreman usually has a means for detecting methane and other dangerous gases,
and is ready with a gust or wind spell to keep the air breathable.† Itís still a demanding and risky job, but a
miner in Stepl can reasonably expect to live to retirement age.

Callaveaís operations are just as sophisticated as Steplís,
but they have taken a different tact.†
In this duchy, it is preferred to use magical devices to keep humans out
of harmís way.† One of the forerunners
in this field was Dameon HarrowFoote, a kolba healer stationed at a mining
post.† He was sickened

by the number of mining injuries he had to treat, and
applied his Wolvesbane knowledge to creating specialty golems used in the more
dangerous aspects of mining.† He worked
in conjunction with the Duke (who supplied the raw materials) under the
condition that his creations be used throughout the duchy.† Mines are charged a fee for the use of the
golems, and a portion of their annual mining permit fees are used to cover
their maintenance and upkeep.† Each mine
in Callavea has 1-6 wooden golems, ranging from gnome to kolba sized.† These devices are used to clear out rubble,
shore up supports, and test the atmosphere in the mine.† There are also three iron golems that travel
from mine to mine, and are used for heavy excavation.† These beasts are not human shaped, but instead have shovels for
hands and a long, wheeled dumpster for a body.†
They break up and dig out new tunnels for mines.† Dameonís masterpiece, however, is an
endenimite coated golem, which serves the same purpose as the iron models, but will
last longer and need fewer repairs.†
Unfortunately he passed away before the designs were completed, but his
daughter Julia is carrying on his business.†
Julia has tried using golems for the entire mining process, but has
found they lack the intellect and judgment of humans, often destroying the
very metal they are seeking.† She is
still searching for a way of creating a golem that is smart enough to replace
human miners.† Callavean miners use
other magics, such as earth to mud spells, and consult mountain druids to find
the richest veins of metals.† None of
this comes cheaply, and itís this expense that keeps mining from being a more
wide scale operation in this duchy.† The
materials mined in Callavea are silver, diamonds, tin, and copper.

The compassion that the people of Callavea have for their
workers is not mirrored in Azure.† Here
the concern is centered more on turning a quick profit, and less on the health
and welfare of the miners involved.†
Azure does not have a great relationship with its dwarven population, so
lacks the design and technical knowledge that gives Stepl its advantage.† Likewise, most of their magical endeavors
are centered on the forests and timber industry, so they lack Callaveaís
magical knowledge of mining.† They also
face additional dangers from orc raiders and goblins (and occasionally elves,
too).† About one third of an Azurian
mine is made up of guards to protect the miners, one third are skilled miners,
and the last third are conscripts (usually debtors).† Professional miners are fiercely proud of their skills and brag
about their toughness and willingness to face danger.† They tend to be clannish and secretive of their techniques, using
word of mouth and a guild system to pass on their knowledge.† Thereís very little science used in
excavating a mine, and only a basic knowledge of soil types, dangerous gases,
and the hazards of collapse are known.†
An experienced miner might get the willies and call for more supports,
but this is based purely on experience, not on any provable facts.† Cave-ins, asphyxiation, and explosions are
fairly common (at least one mine a year gets shut down in Azure).† However, when disaster strikes, all the
miners nearby stop what theyíre doing and try to rescue any survivors.† The conditions in the Azure mines are not
intentionally cruel, and everyone working there is trying their best to make
sure everyone comes out alive at the end of the day.† Strangely enough, this rough feeling of family attracts a lot of
conscripts, who tend to stay on after their term is served.† An Azurian miner tends to start working at
the age of 10, is lucky to live to the age of 50, and is likely too worn out to
continue working much longer.† They mine
tin, copper, and platinum.

The absolutely worst place to be a miner is in the duchy of
Shad, where Narheimís coal is found.†
The miners are all conscripts or people who have wronged someone
important.† The mining conditions
themselves are dangerous enough, since Duke Shad (a notorious cheapskate) would
rather kill a dozen prisoners than spend money on improving conditions.† In addition, a wide variety of beasts live
in the Green Mountains (wyverns, orcs, giants, worgs and wolves to name a
few).† The few guards stationed at the
mine (the worst post in Shad) are more interested in protecting the ore than
the miners, and consider throwing a few prisons to the beasts Ďacceptable
lossesí.† The only advantage the miners
of Shad have is they can rent some steam powered mining equipment from the
Green Dwarves, which makes their work go faster.

As far as non-human races are concerned, the dwarves are the
masters of mining.† They use superior
mining techniques coupled with alchemy and magical metals to create mines
deeper and more efficient than those found in modern day America.† Collapse is virtually unheard of and usually
due to sabotage rather than carelessness.†
Most of these techniques are secrets reserved for dwarves alone,
although some information has leaked out (see Stepl, above).

Of the other races, gnomes do only limited, shallow mining,
usually for gems.† Kolbas tend to
stick to the surface, usually panning for gold or shallow surface mining; they
tend to work in family units.† Elves
usually avoid mining, except for fyderians.†
Fyderian mines are built along dwarven specifications, use magical
techniques (like mountain druids and scrying) to locate minerals, and never use
heavy machinery (they mine by hand).†
Finally, lizardmen do not mine metals, preferring wood and bone
weapons.† They do prize meteoric metals,
and make their holy and magical weapons out of them.